What is left is the more difficult doctrinal task of defining where the illegality-irregularity line lies in less extreme situations, of offering a legitimate way of genuine fund-use variation in private placements, and of calibrating the range of the affected class of stakeholders.

The Kerala High Court's judgment, affirmed at the SLP stage, establishes that sectoral regulation does not displace CCI jurisdiction and that the Bharti Airtel sequential model is confined to cases where a sector regulator's prior determination is a necessary input to the competition analysis.

There is a reasonable argument that India's courts have managed trade secret disputes adequately without a dedicated statute. However, "adequate" protection for well-resourced parties with carefully drafted NDAs is not the same as a reliable legal framework. MSMEs without the resources for patent registration, startups whose entire commercial value rests on a single process, and inventors without a contractual relationship with the party who misappropriates their idea are lef